1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electron beam apparatus which is used for a flat panel display and has an electron-emitting device that emits an electron provided therein.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there is an electron-emitting device which makes a large number of electrons to be emitted from a cathode, collide against a facing gate and be scattered therein, and then takes out the electron. A surface conduction type electron-emitting device and a stacked type electron-emitting device are known as a device which emits an electron in such a form, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-251643 discloses a high-efficiency electron-emitting device in which a gap of an electron-emitting portion is 5 nm or less. In addition, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-229809 discloses a stacked type electron-emitting device, in which conditions of enabling electron emission with high efficiency are given by functions of the thickness of a gate material, driving voltage and the thickness of an insulating layer. Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-167693 discloses a stacked type electron-emitting device having a structure in which a recess portion is provided in an insulating layer in the vicinity of the electron-emitting portion.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-251643 discloses a device which makes a plurality of electron-emitting points exist in the formed gap, and thereby can provide an electron-emitting device which inhibits electric discharge in an electron-emitting portion, and can stably work for a long period of time. However, the above electron-emitting devices do not solve a problem sufficiently that an amount of electron to be emitted from each of points of the electron-emitting points increases and decreases along with a driving period of time of driving a device, even though the technologies could inhibit the electric discharge in the electron-emitting portion. In addition, the above electron-emitting devices showed a phenomenon of increasing and decreasing the number of the electron-emitting points existing in the gap along with the driving period of time of the electron-emitting device.
The same phenomenon as the above described phenomenon has been found also in the device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-229809, and a stable electron-emitting device has been desired.
Furthermore, the device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-167693 shows an excellent electron-emitting efficiency, but its characteristics have been required to be further enhanced.